David Wroe4:23 PM
An extra 300 Australian troops are being sent to train Iraqis in the fight against the Islamic State terror group, with Tony Abbott refusing to rule out boosting the deployment further.

Peter Martin1:53 PM
The proposed Trans Pacific Partnership is likely to push up the price of medicines, stop some Australians from taking their medicines and make it harder to restrict the sale of tobacco and alcohol, a comprehensive review has found.

Latika Bourke2:53 PM
The Q&A audience member who asked a Labor frontbencher if he had "sold his soul" by changing some of his policy positions has been unveiled as a former Liberal staffer who worked for cabinet Minister Bruce Billson until the end of last year.

Mark Kenny, David Wroe
12:48 PM
The Coalition party room is expected to rubber stamp an expansion of Australia's military commitment to Iraq as early as Tuesday as Tony Abbott moves to capitalise on a poll recovery.

James Massola5:21 AM
The Business Council of Australia has called on the federal government to seek only modest savings in the May budget and avoid major new spending commitments that are not offset by cuts elsewhere.

Peter Hartcher
The rise of the barbarians of the so-called Islamic State is rightly concentrating a lot of time and energy in the civilised world. Yet while we remain preoccupied with this new danger, the old ones are rampant.

Michael Pascoe
There will be all sorts of collateral damage accompanying Tony Abbott’s presumed demise with Peta Credlin and Joe Hockey only the most obvious. What chance it also means the end of the Palmer United Party?

Paul Sheehan
In an interview with Tony Abbott in 2010 about his shadow ministry, what struck me most was his singling out of one person above all, describing him as having prime ministerial potential. That person was Scott Morrison. I didn't see it then. I see it now.

Political leaders often become well-known for a physical attribute. John Howard's eyebrows gave cartoonists, a whole new visual thesaurus for expressing his moods. Kevin Rudd's hair – studiedly casual, endlessly susceptible to breeze – became an allegory for the man himself.

James Massola
It's not hard to imagine that Tony Abbott might have looked wistfully back across the Tasman to Australia once or twice on this quick trip and pondered what a difference a couple of thousand kilometres can make.

Judith Ireland When Scott Morrison fronted the National Press Club this week, he was careful to point out that the McClure report into welfare he had just released was a "report to government, not from government".